Pacific Islanders

Cardell K. Jacobson & Robyn J. Barrus

The term Pacific Islanders includes individuals from a variety of origins. In the 2000 census, a number of racial categories could be checked: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, and several Asian groups, including Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, and Samoan. The Other Pacific Islanders category also could be checked. In addition, individuals were allowed to select one or more racial categories to indicate their racial identity. Thus, the Pacific Islanders category includes Native Hawaiians, Guamanians or Chamorro, Tongans, Marquesans, Maori, Tahitians, Fijians, and others from the smaller islands of the Pacific—altogether, a diverse grouping of languages and cultures. The largest of these groups, as shown in Table 1 , are the Native Hawaiians and Samoans. This entry presents information and a brief review of these groups on both the mainland and Hawaiian Islands of the United States. It also briefly discusses the issues of out-marriage, ...

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